The invention relates to a refrigerated mobile cargo container and in particular, to a hydraulic control system for operating the rear and side gates of such a container to facilitate the loading and unloading of cargo.
Many mobile cargo containers are equipped with both side and rear gate units having hydraulically actuated elevators or platforms that are selectively raised and/or lowered to help in the loading and unloading of cargo. The hydraulic system used to control the gates in earlier units typically included an electric pump that was driven from any available 12 volt power supply of the type used in the automotive industry. Later, it was found that the diesel engine used to drive the air conditioner in refrigerated units could also be used to power the hydraulics used to actuate the gates. Two separate and complete hydraulic systems may therefore be found on some refrigerated units. The use of two independent hydraulic systems, however, is relatively expensive because many of the component parts are duplicated in the two systems. Efforts to combine the systems in order to eliminate duplication of parts have for the most part been proven to be relatively unsuccessful.